Law Practice Management

The Tennessee Bar Association has a variety of resources and practical information on law office management issues available to help members better serve clients and practice more efficiently and effectively.

Below you will find the Practice Management Advisor Pipes Feed, brought to you by the Law Office Technology & Management Section of the Tennessee Bar Association. "PMA Pipes" is an RSS newsfeed that was designed by the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center. It combines posts from the blogs of Practice Management Advisors from across the United States, as well as the ABA's Site-tation blog, into one convenient location. The blogs brought to you by this feed include: Law Practice Matters, Reid My Blog, Law Practice Tips, Law Practice Advisor, The Last Word, Thoughtful Legal Management, and Compujurist, among others.

Practice Management Advisor Pipes Feed

A Texas firm notified us that they received an email from the purported Ronald Rempe of Shores Manufacturinglooking to retain them with regards to a commercial debt collection.
This is a classic bad cheque scam that presents as legal matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer. In this scam lawyers will be duped into wiring real funds from their trust accounts after depositing a fake cheque received as payment from the debtor (who is part of the fraud). See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of...

Are you tired of dragging messages to Inbox folders? Try using an email filing assistant to speed up the process! How do Email Filing Assistants (EFAs) Work? Email filing assistants help “automate” filing of email into folders by using algorithms to learn … Continue reading →

It’s 2014. We’re one year away from hoverboards and flying cars, and you’re still using spreadsheets and shoeboxes full of receipts to track your finances? Doesn’t that seem a little archaic to you? How much time could you save each month just by having an accounting system in place for your firm?
The answer: a lot. While the prospect of firms doing their own accounting can be daunting (there is, after all, an entire profession based around the fact that people hate accounting), there are a...

If job gains and losses are any indication of economic recovery, it is safe to say that the general economy continues to inch out of the recession pit, but the legal industry is still in the hole. The most recent report by the US Department of Labor indicates that the legal industry lost 1,200 jobs in April, even as the economy as a whole saw the highest monthly job creation in more than two years.
According to DOL, the private sector as a whole has posted a job gain for 50 consecutive months...

Microsoft Released a security patch on Thursday, May 1st, which fixed all Windows versions of Internet Explorer, including for Windows XP!
XP has been out of support, but with a heavy installed base — estimated at 30% of the world’s computers by some — Microsoft made an exception to its policy by updating the operating system. At a lot of law firms, there was a visible sigh of relief. Kudos to Microsoft for doing the right thing.
Personally, I took the opportunity to change...

This article is by Nora Rock, corporate writer and policy analyst at LAWPRO
Consulting with more experienced colleagues to confirm that you’re on the right track in resolving a problem is natural and commendable in any profession. Working in isolation is inefficient, and leads to preventable errors. Without access to information about others’ experience, we’re forced to make our own mistakes. For this reason, sole practitioners are routinely encouraged to seek out mentors and advisers from...

Presenting a PowerPoint from your iPad can result in a more natural and interactive presentation, allowing you walk around, switch between applications, write notes or do white-boarding, and go back to your core presentation.
Getting your PowerPoint on your iPad
My three “choice” apps to have in your toolbox show PowerPoint presentations on the iPad are PowerPoint (available since March 28, 2014), Keynote and SlideShark. There are pros and cons to all three.
PowerPoint is a good choice, but...

This is the final post in my week-long series on Oregon eCourt. Today we take note of a small, but potentially important detail: case numbers are not unique in the eCourt system. After logging on, eCourt users have an option … Continue reading →

Today we explore how to search court calendars in the Oregon eCourt system. There are two options for searching calendars. The first uses a publicly accessible link from the Oregon Judicial Department home page. The second approach requires logging in … Continue reading →

Austin Lane Crothers, former Governor of Maryland in the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I only have two fashion rules:
(1) Plaid (I suppose camouflage, as well) matches everything.
(2) Umbrellas are for hippies.
This is probably why I’m a law firm consultant, and not a fashion consultant. Fortunately, Emmi Sorokin is a fashion stylist, who works out of Boston’s Back Bay to help her clients fine-tune their professional image. Emmi has recently published ‘The Business Casual Survival...

Succession Planning

TBA Resource Center

Visit the Tennessee Bar Center at 221 Fourth Ave. North, Suite 400 in Nashville, and check out any of the many publications about law office management that are available. Obtain forms, checklists and information about how to set up your practice. Free to TBA members.